CALLUM MCGREGOR says that Celtic were naïve as they left themselves a mountain to climb in order to progress in the UEFA Conference League.

Celtic fell to a hugely disappointing 3-1 defeat at the hands of Bodo/Glimt in the first leg of their last 32 tie against the Norwegian champions, with a late Daizen Maeda goal giving a packed Celtic Park hope that their side could haul themselves level from a 2-0 deficit.

Glimt immediately went up the other end and hit a third though, and the Celtic captain says that moment shows how much his side still have to learn at this level.

“If the game finishes 2-1 then you’ve got a real good chance,” McGregor said. “That’s the naivety we’ve got at this level in terms of being a new group.

“So, we’ve got to learn from that. We’ll do the analysis and learn that you’ve always got to switch on, especially when you score. That’s probably when you’re at your most vulnerable.

“We have to take that on the chin, reassess it, we go there next week and we try to turn it around.”

McGregor also felt that Celtic were lacking the quality in the final third that has been the hallmark of their recent performances.

“We got into some good situations, but the final pass just wasn’t quite there in terms of quality," he said.

“That shows that we’ve still got a lot of learning to do in these big games. We need to step it up.

“They got three goals tonight because of the quality they have.

“It is always difficult when you go a goal behind so early in the game. That gives you a mountain to climb. But I still felt we had enough in the game and had some good situations around their box.

“It was just that last wee bit of quality that was probably missing.

“Even when we got the goal, you would think that maybe gives us the ascendancy. But then we conceded straight away and that sort of kills us again.

“But, for me, there was enough in the game that suggests we can go over there and turn it around.

“We need to stay positive and stay calm. We know it’ll be tough next week. But I saw enough in this game to suggest we can go there and turn it around.”